


enough for forever

by ZionPhoenix



Series: Domestic Immortals and their Shenanigans [1]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Andy is tired all the time, Found Family, Nile could have been a librarian in another life, POV Nile Freeman, Post-Movie, Swearing, don't know what else to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:08:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25694059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZionPhoenix/pseuds/ZionPhoenix
Summary: Those shelves really need some organisation, she thinks. She doesn't have to understand the titles to know that there is absolutely no order on those shelves.ORHow Nile made 1000-year-old men whine because of reorganised books.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Domestic Immortals and their Shenanigans [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863277
Comments: 38
Kudos: 511





	enough for forever

**Author's Note:**

> I had some ideas about stuff the team gets up to, stay tuned for more immortal shenanigans.
> 
> Unbetaed, please let me know of any mistakes you find.

"So, what do we do now?" It's been a week since the Merrick disaster, and they are finally settling into a safe house, after hopping from one to the other basically every day.

"We lay low until Copley has cleaned this mess up."

After dinner they lounge around in the living room, Andy is watching TV while Joe and Nicky are cleaning their swords. Nile stands in front of one of the book shelves, the wooden planks curving under the weight. She doesn't understand most of the titles, doesn't even recognise some of the alphabets, as she skims the shelves for an English book. Not caring what it is, she grabs the first one she sees and plants herself in one of the armchairs. Those shelves really need some organisation, she thinks. She doesn't have to understand the titles to know that there is absolutely no order on those shelves. They must have enough books to last forever, and well, time is all she has now. Flipping the book open, she starts to read.

A few days later she gets her chance. Andy has left right after breakfast. Joe and Nicky have spent the last hour putting together a shopping list, and are now getting ready to leave. The length of the list and the fact that the men have a skewed concept of time indicate that she will have at least 2 hours before they come back. Once they are out the door she sits down in front of the first shelf and starts googling. Before she can do anything else with the books, she has to know which books there are. Slowly but surely the spreadsheet is growing. The first shelf is done after an hour, and Nile takes a break to brew some more coffee and stretch her legs. Then, she starts with the second shelf.

Another hour and a half later Joe and Nicky come back. "Hey Nile. What are you doing?" She barely looks up from where she's working. 

"Just looking up all these books so I can decide on what to read. Once I know the language of course." She doesn't tell them about her further plans. A few minutes later Nicky comes up behind her, handing her her refilled coffee cup, and takes a look at the laptop. 

"Wow, you're even making a spreadsheet." He leans a bit closer to get a better look. "That's a lot of categories and stuff. Impressive. Remember to only save it locally though. No clouds allowed." Nile turns so fast, she's surprised she doesn't get whiplash. Luckily she has already set down her mug, or she would have spilled hot coffee everywhere. Nicky just laughs at her. "What, did you think we have absolutely no clue about computers? Andy's the only one who is hopeless with these things. Joe and I even know how to use the internet, we just don't know anything about hacking and tracking and stuff like that. That's what-" He sighs. "That was Booker's job. Now it's Copley's. Unless you can do it?" Nile, still a little shocked by this relevation, just shakes her head. He pats her shoulder, laughs some more at her incredulous face, and then goes back to the kitchen to help Joe put the last of the groceries away, leaving Nile to finish cataloguing this shelf.

Two days later she has all the books in her spreadsheet. Now the next step is to sort them. First by alphabetical topic, then century, then author. She has thought about sorting by language first, but decided against it. If ever needed, the info is in her spreadsheet. The next time she's alone Nile piles up all the books of the first topic, then moves the other books around to make space on the top shelves, referencing her spreadsheet as she puts the books in their new place. She continues until the first shelf is now completely organised, then decides to stop for the day, because she doesn't know when the others will come back. Settling down in her armchair, she picks up her current read.

The next morning they all spend some time in a nearby park, sitting on a big picknick blanket with enough snacks to last the whole day. Andy is taking a nap, Joe is writing something in one of his notebooks and Nicky has taken off with a camera almost immediately. Nile hasn't bothered to ask, and instead buried herself in her book.

They sit in a comfortable silence, Nicky has come back after 2 hours and is now looking through his photos on a laptop. Nile hadn't even noticed him bringing it. She finishes her book sometime after noon, and has a quick stretch before her stomach loudly announces lunch time. They wake up Andy and quickly hand her a cup of coffee she can grumble into. Lunch is a merry affair, the older immortals telling Nile stories of past missions, vacations and shenanigans.

She excuses herself afterwards, to pick up a new book at the safe house and to roam the city on her own. They send her off with a wave and a "Don't expect us home before dinner." that she gladly acknowledges. She does explore part of the city for an hour before heading back to the safe house to continue organising the books.

Nile isn't sure why she's so focussed on this task, but figures that it gives her something to do while they lay low. Just reading and lounging around get boring after while, although she thinks that she'll have to get used to it eventually. 

That evening when they come together in front of the TV, Nicky glances around, eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Guys, is it just me, or is something different in here?" Nile looks up, watching the others scan the room as well. 

"It's not just you, love, I have the same feeling. I think it's the book shelves? They seem a bit off from a few days ago." Nile sheepishly sinks deeper into her armchair, slowly raising her book to cover her face. Not that she thinks the other immortals wouldn't notice, no, this is just pretense. Joe glares at her. "Nile, what did you do?" For some reason she felt like she's being scolded by a father or older brother. She sighs and lowers the book into her lap. 

"I reorganised the books. It was impossible to find anything in that random mess." Silence. The others look at her like she were crazy. 

"You, you reordered the books? But Nile, how are we supposed to find anything now?" She scoffs at them. With how much change they have experienced, one would think they could take this little change a bit better. 

"Please, they are just sorted by topic, century and author. Way easier than whatever was going before." She crosses her arms in front of her, trying to emphasise that she would not back down. 

"They were in the order we bought them in, that was way easier! Do you think we know in which century some book or the other came out?" 

"I can remove the century if you want, but you have to admit that it's easier to just skim all the books in the category you want than all of the fucking shelves." Nope, not backing down. 

"But the chronological buying order at least helps trigger our memory if we're not sure if a book is even in this safe house, because we know which books came after it." 

"The spreadsheet is on the laptop, if you're not sure in which safe house a particular book is you can just search it! Because I do plan on doing this in all the other safe houses too. The old way may have been more convenient for you, but it's unusable for me, and I'd like to find books as fast as possible, thank you very much." And with that she deems the argument over and picks up her book again. They'll come around, she's sure of it. It was a better method of organisation, and one all of them could use. She watches from the corner of her eyes as Joe and Nicky get up and inspect the shelves. She had even seperated the different topics with thick sheets of paper, writing the new topic name on it. There's no way this is worse than before. Joe and Nicky sit down again, both with a book in hand, still glaring at her. She just winks at them, and goes back to her book. They'll get used to it.

* * *

And they do. Some time later, when they welcome Booker back into their arms, he almost starts crying tears of joy when he sees the organised book shelves, the system had evolved over time until it was perfect. Nile happily tells him the story of how she made 1000-year-old men whine because of reorganised books.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Let me know what you think, comments and kudos are highly appreciated!


End file.
